Given the murder of UHC's CEO this week, the concept of "social murder" has been doing the rounds [1]:<p>> When one individual inflicts bodily injury upon another such that death results, we call the deed manslaughter; when the assailant knew in advance that the injury would be fatal, we call his deed murder. But when society places hundreds of proletarians in such a position that they inevitably meet a too early and an unnatural death, one which is quite as much a death by violence as that by the sword or bullet; when it deprives thousands of the necessaries of life, places them under conditions in which they cannot live – forces them, through the strong arm of the law, to remain in such conditions until that death ensues which is the inevitable consequence – knows that these thousands of victims must perish, and yet permits these conditions to remain, its deed is murder just as surely as the deed of the single individual; disguised, malicious murder, murder against which none can defend himself, which does not seem what it is, because no man sees the murderer, because the death of the victim seems a natural one, since the offence is more one of omission than of commission. But murder it remains.<p>The American private health insurance industry is quite literally built on <i>knowingly and foreseeably</i> killing people (by denying claims) for profit. But we don't tend to view it as murder in the same as we do when someone is gunned down on the street. Yet we should.<p>Shelter is a basic human need. Lack of shelter will foreseeably kill people. It's no different to private health insurance.<p>As another commenter put it (correctly), this is really about using AI to collude on pricing If most landlords use the same software system that produces the same results, then that's just collusion.<p>That's really what AI is for: to detach humans from their responsibility in violent outcomes, be it with colluding to raise rents as is the case here or, say, to target bombs [2].<p>We're barrelling towards being just like brick kiln workers in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh except half of us are cheering that on.<p>[1]: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_murder" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_murder</a><p>[2]: <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/24151437/ai-israel-gaza-war-hamas-artificial-intelligence" rel="nofollow">https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/24151437/ai-israel-gaza-w...</a>